Sexual violence is any type of sexual act or attempts to obtain a sexual act by violence or coercion, acts to traffic a person, or acts directed against a person’s sexuality, regardless of the relationship to the victim. There are many types of different sexual violence, for example, child sexual abuse, intimate partner sexual violence, incest, and much more. Sexual violence is considered to be one of the most traumatic, pervasive, and most common human rights violations which means that preventing this heinous crime is one of the top priorities. There are two proposed solutions: (1) advocate to the population of how sexual violence is intolerable and how it affects the victims (especially the male population as usually females are the victims and males are the perpetrators however, not every case is similar to this) and (2) educate the society that sexual violence might be portrayed in the media and films, such as pornography, however, this is not a social norm and is not considered acceptable. The first solution is to advocate to the population how sexual violence is intolerable and how it affects the victims. This biological perspective can be used to explain why sexual offenders commit sexual violence. This theory states that any unwilling sexual acts that occur are based on biological needs. This means that people are committing sexual crimes to satisfy their sexual needs and that human beings need to have transmission of their genes for the future population. This theory might explain some reasons as to why sexual offenders commit these crimes however, not every case can be justified. For example, child sexual abuse is one of the most common types of sexual violence but, this theory does not justify this act as children would not be of the appropriate age to “procreate”. However, preventing even a fraction of the sexual violence cases that transpire would be considered a success. A solution for preventing sexual violence, for this reason, would be to properly advocate to the male population (as they would be the ones to transmit their genes onto females) that this is not how they can procreate and that this is coercion. This can be done by the government making it obligatory for males to attend a seminar every year so they can be educated on how sexual violence acts are not acceptable in society. This would attempt to inform them that sexual violence is not the way to transmit their genes to the future generation. This kind of behavior can also be explained as sometimes offenders have cognitive and neuro-anatomical abnormalities, for example, they might have high levels of testosterone, might have psychological problems or they might have alcohol/drug use problems. This can be treated by giving people who have these issues some type of drug or medicine that could help them overcome these issues. However, the complication with this is that it is almost impossible to identify every person with these issues so preventing sexual violence completely in this way is extremely difficult. Another way in which sexual violence can be prevented is by educating society that sexual violence might be portrayed in the media, when cases are reported, and in films, such as pornography. However, this is not a social norm and is not considered acceptable. This relates to the social learning theory and it states that sexual violence can be learned from imitation. Different attitudes about sexual violence are presented in aggressive pornography and other media representations of violence against women. This type of behavior is learned by people and cannot be “unlearned”. As pornography has made this a norm, people would want to explore their sexual fantasies and therefore try this in real life. This explains that the audience could misunderstand the concept of consent and carry out acts that require consent however, they misinterpreted this. This can be prevented by educating the community that the content that is shown in the media and pornographic films is fictitious and is not something that should be done in the real world. This could be done by putting disclaimers in the beginning and, maybe while explicit scenes are taking place. This would force the viewers to read the text that is written of how the content shown is not something that should be done in the real world. The social learning theory also states that offenders do not learn ways to rape, but how to justify rape. The justifying process is affected by our culture and they learn from societal interactions. If our society could be educated on how this kind of behavior is not acceptable, there is a potential for potential sexual offenders and existing offenders to stop this kind of heinous crime. Many NGOs advocate and educate people on sexual violence and how it affects the victims’ lives. This can be an extension to the solution stated above as NGOs also provide care for victims and help them with any difficulties they might face.
